art legacy and community EVENTS

WHITE HISTORY by dave harris

​Produced by Finn Lefevre, Claudia Nolan & Gaven Trinidad​Our understanding of race is changing. Today, we have a vocabulary that did not exist fifty or even fifteen years ago. "White privilege" and "white culture" were nonexistent. Everything was framed within a context of "other." Of not white. Of not normal. Of not human. Today, whiteness is becoming something tangible. With tangibility, it becomes deconstructable. Dave Harris' White History explores the ways in which we understand and don't understand race. The ways in which even the phrases Black, white, African American and white American fail us today.UMass Amherst: April 18, 2016

interview with the playwright:

what inspired you to write this play?

﻿Natasha Thretheway has a quote: "It's much easier to say what an atrocity that was than to say what an atrocity this is." Someone once asked me if I was proud of America's racial progress. My response was to burst out laughing. People like to distance themselves from America's past, as if we were not all the sons and daughters of our history. White History puts our typical ideas of 'racism' in context with our ideas of innocence and colorblindness. Just because you're not wearing a hood doesn't mean you do not have work to do. And you definitely have work to do. I wrote this play to quite literally put our ideas of racism in conversation with our ideas of post-racialism.

What were some of your cultural, historical, and artistic influences for this piece?

The patriarchy and the quiet racism of American sitcoms. Lots of research about the KKK (everything in the play about the Klan is true. They have a daycare system called Klan Kids Kare. They teach self defense and survival courses. They have bake sales for the needy). Nina Simone. A lifetime of infiltrating white spaces.

How do you hope this piece resonates with contemporary audiences?

There will come a point in the play where the audience can no longer see themselves in this play. A point where it becomes life or death and you stop laughing. A point where we realize how complicit we are in all of this. Seeing this play work on an audience, the laughter, the discomfort, the fear at times, it becomes impossible to not be haunted by this show.

Any advice for young aspiring playwrights?

Homie, I'm still a young aspiring playwright. I imagine I'll always be, at least I hope. Somehow young and still aspiring. My belief is that art makes experience accessible, so you have to ask yourself what you need people to know from your world. There's this moment that happens for me when I'm writing where I feel as if I cannot die. As if nothing will stop whatever story this is from being written. That doesn't mean what I'm writing in that moment is good. It just means that I will not stop. So I suppose what I'm saying is write the things that drive you mad. Don't stop, and someone will always listen.